Monthly Archives: November 2010

Here it is the start of a new series of posts on this blog, and they’re gonna get their own category.

I also thought of another new series today – but I’ll start it in the new year, God willing.

In the meantime, the ICMTSU series is exactly what it says it is, and this piece I found in the Telegraph this weekend is a prime example of what I mean.

When I saw this I was moments away from sending it to the Private Eye, but I realised on time I have a perfectly good publication myself, if with a smaller readership for the time being, namely this blog, and so here it is!

Shane Dawson appears twice in the top ten. Like all of the most successful channels Shane allows free rating and comments. Like many of the most successful YT artist he cultivates muliple channels which cross refer to each other. The largest category in the YouTube A list is Comedian. Even though hot women get high views, they don't get the same viewer loyalty as the laughsters do.

The terms “A list”, “B list“, etc – in short just about any letter of the alphabet plus “list”, all the way down to “ZZZ list” followed by the word celebrity is used in modern speech as a way of categorising the degree of stardom a person in the media has achieved. So they can be said to be on some letter’s list all the way from being only slightly well-known right the way through to being a major international star, or an ex-star who has wained and gone back down the letters again.

People seem to know who is “A list”, “B list”, etc, although I am not sure that there is any objective criterion for the measurement of this stardom. The most objective you can get for traditional media like television is who draws the most ratings. Even the criterion of makes the most money is not the most objective criterion as there are people that don’t make that much money despite the fact that they are extremely recognisable and extremely popular. Look at the Pope for instance. He is certainly an A-lister even though as a monk he is consigned to earn nothing and live in destitute poverty in the Vatican surrounded by priceless art works and attentive flunkies bearing gold, frankincense and grappa. Read the rest of this entry →

If you have decided to buy one or more paper copies of this book – the ideal Christmas gift for the linguist in your life – it costs you the same – and makes a small commission for me which will offset the costs of this site a little bit.

If you would like to read this book, which was collaborated on free by all the contributors and will always be freely available to those who need it in electronic form, then the free version of this is on Docstocs and you can find the link to that on on the channel of the Editor which is http://www.youtube.com/syzygycc

The book is unique, there has never been as much practical linguist-to-linguist help in a single bound volume, and the volunteer nature of the writing has kept the cost of the book far below the price tag it would have if it had been produced commercially.

One of the contributors I am proud to say is myself, and you can find in the very last section how it came about that I was in a position to discover the Goldlist Method – the story has quite a few unexpected aspects in it, and many a linguist will find their experience reflected in it and in the stories of other polyglots featuring in the volume.

It should help the budding linguist to get and stay motivated, as well as to avoid ineffective study methods and save time and money. In these days where thousands of pounds are spent by many people on expensive courses and schools where they often are doomed to fail, it makes sense to read this book first – whether the free e-book or the cheap-as-possible paper form – and then decide on your strategy before committing your cash.

Hello All, The release date for the Polyglot Project is less than 10 days away. Officially, it’s November 15, 2010, but it may be sooner! A link to the complete, free PDF of the book will be posted here and on my YouTube Channel (syzygycc). It contains over 500 pages of the best language learning techniques, as explained by successful YouTube Polyglots and language learners. If you want to learn how to successfully learn a language or two (or ten … Read More

Autumn, that season which my American readers will more readily refer to as “Fall”, is obviously one of four seasons in the year and therefore ought to have three months, since obviously twelve divided by four is three. It wouldn’t be fair if one season had more time and the others less.

But when exactly does Autumn begin? In some parts of the Northern hemisphere they say it’s September, October and November, and that’s the most common definition. In the southern hemisphere they say March, April and May, which mirrors that. In North America, however, they started to measure it from the September equinox. There is also a Celtic tradition which calls August to October the Autumn months – so why the discrepancies? Why isn’t there an objective Autumn?

I can’t find any links for this online, but as memory serves, one time a famous scientist was asked by a television interviewer to define the start and close of Autumn, and he said the following “Botanically speaking, autumn starts when the leaves start to fall off the trees, and finishes when they have all fallen off”.

I found this problematic, as there are trees which have some leaves left on all winter. However, this year as I look out of my window I see that all the leaves that are going to fall off trees – at least the ones around here, are already gone. There’s no sign of leaves on any of them, and it’s only the first week of November – the month whose name in Polish means “the falling of the leaves” – ‘listopad’.

The reason is fairly clear though. The last few days have had a warm but strong wind, which I have quite enjoyed walking around in. It was 16 degrees one day but people were in the main wrapped up. I was in just a jacket and shirt and tie and didn’t feel the need for anything more than that, as I generally don’t until it gets below ten degrees centigrade. About a month ago it was quite a bit colder and last year at this time there had already been snow in Warsaw – although not yet in Moscow.

So we have an interesting thing – trees looking like it’s already winter and temperatures better than some that we had in the summer. I wonder what that bodes for the coming winter. A few weeks back I blogged here about the arguments being raised for a really cold winter this year. Could this early leaf-loss be a harbinger of what’s to come?

This is the seventh of my cycle of ten Hymns, called “The Psalms of Davey”. They are being reproduced in a special category on this blog one after another. In only one case is the tune my own (that’ll be number ten). In other cases, please follow the links to get to the midi for the tunes, courtesy of http://www.cyberhymnal.org To find the category of “Psalms of Davey” please review the categories section in the side bar.

7. “I SOUGHT THE PRAISE OF SINNERS”

(Words Uncle Davey, Voronezh, Russia, 12th October 1985. Music Chretien d’Urhan (1790-1845) Tune name “Rutherford“. People interested in historical curiosities, don’t overlook to click on the link I gave to the wikipedia article on the composer, as his life was interesting and the end of it something of an enigma.)

The tune is named for Samuel Rutherford, and is normally sung to Anne Cousin’s hymn The sands of time are sinking, which when unabridged is one of the longest hymns in use, as well as some of the best religious poetry in the English language.

My text cannot compare in beauty with the usual use of the tune I have selected for it, but the state of mind in it is something which I, and I am sure not only I, have needed to face up to again and again. Pride is a very sneaky sin, you can even feel pride for believing you’ve dealt with your pride. I don’t think I’ve managed to perfectly rid myself of wrongful pride for more than a few seconds of my entire waking life, if that, which is why I cannot but hope on the mercy of God, and why I say that those Christians who believe we can only endure to the end and be saved if we become somehow free of sin, (which when I compare that to my own experience seems frankly laughable) and who reject the doctrine of eternal security of believers unless they can attain to some sinless perfection on earth – these people either don’t have the same problems as I do or they just gloss over them. Actually it is simply a lie from the devil, who will put anything in a person’s mind that will stop them from going to God repeatedly for forgiveness as often as he goes to the tap for water, which is the true experience of the penitent sinner. I hope someone out there is blessed by these words as they resonate with your own experience.

1.I sought the praise of sinners,Their glance and their regardI sought their admirationAnd now my heart is hardLord, make me poor in spiritThat I might humble beCut back my vain delusionsBe all in all to me.